


Intertwine with the Darkspawn

by FrozenCascades



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: All grammar mistakes and capitalisation of words are intentional, Diary entries take place pre-DA:O, Diary/Journal, Dragon Age 4 in my head lol, Gen, Kind of an AU...?, M/M, Original Character(s), Real story takes place post-DA:I Trespasser, this is a diary entry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28152429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenCascades/pseuds/FrozenCascades
Summary: No one anticipated what former Inquisitor Arondil Lavellan discovers after reading a badly-written, unassuming journal of a Valammar smuggler that the Orzammar Shaperate has kept for twenty years. No one, not even the Dread Wolf.
Relationships: Male Lavellan/Dorian Pavus, Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	1. Entry #1

**Author's Note:**

> All grammar errors and capitalisation of words are intentional.
> 
> I own nothing from the Dragon Age universe. I simply own the original characters.
> 
> There is actually a codex called "A Different Darkspawn?" which you should check it out if you haven't. It talks about a dwarven smuggler who came across "a talking darkspawn". The story in this book acts as a sort of an AU where there is another High Priest of the Old Gods like Corypheus and The Architect who has awakened in the span of the Dragon Age. Whether or not it's canon is unknown, as the only source we have is the codex entry above and a few other ones that describe the High Priests in vague detail, but we can imagine! :)

**CODEX ENTRY: A Different Darkspawn?**

_The journal, penned by an unknown writer, appears to be quite old. This appears to be the first chapter of many. The entries that can be read all appear to be about twenty years old. . ._

I didn’t expect my eyes to open after a fall like that. In fact, I didn’t expect to live after an encounter like the one I’m about to write.

Everything hurt like ass. I was laying on my front. My body felt like a sod just stomped on your back and your chest made that rib-crushing CRRK with the floor. I couldn’t breathe.

My mace was a foot away from me. It took me a while to stand up and go get it. Around me were the same as everything you could hope in the Deep Roads: stone walls, stone floor, stone ceiling. The hole where I fell from was at least twenty feet high. Light came out from it. There’s no climbing up there, I thought, so I pressed forward.

I shouldn’t have moved on. I should’ve slammed my head against the stone cause right now, I’d rather be dead.

The Deeper Roads stretched as far as my legs could take me. From here and then, I encountered darkspawn. Nasty things. Wasn’t the first time I fought them. All throughout the whole journey we came across deep crawlers, deepstalkers, only a few hurlocks and genlocks. But this one, this ENCOUNTER was a whole tier of odd. Something that will stick to me WAY long after I finish this.

Brodel said he ain’t leaving unless we got what we came for. Well, sod might be wrong after all. The key to the cache was with me. Got it from some old crone that looked as old as my grandsire, but with more meat to her brain. Hair was snow white and lady looked and sounded like she knew all there was to know in the world. “Some events merely needed a push.” Then she laughed after saying that. She got me when she said the key she gave me would open up ‘a cache of the richest of lyrium’ in Valammar.

We reached Valammar. I got separated from my friends. No sign of a cache just yet.

The last time we ate was just after we got to the entrance. So, I pulled out the jerky I been saving in my bag. That was when I noticed a fire far away from where I was standing on top of a cliff.

It was campfire all right. Alive and burning. I couldn’t see anyone so I thought it was harmless. Well, I was both right and wrong.

There was someone… or something, I don’t even know. I’m not even trying to understand it now. I hid behind a rock wall and observed the figure sitting by the fire. It was tall. Sod was sitting down and it was the same height as the tallest human I’d seen. The fire cloaked what the face looked like.

Then it turned its face.

This was probably the only time I’d been terrified of something alive. Lenka, if you’re reading this, shove a stone up your ass. You only see the pretty guy now but you weren’t witness to the level of ugly I saw.

See, it ain’t a whole ugly without some pretty on the side. I don’t know how to explain it. Sod was so ugly he was pretty. A lot to be admired from something so complicated-looking. And oh yeah. Complicated is how you’d describe how this guy looks.

His skin was grey… like it wasn’t skin at all. If you touch it, you’ll probably feel candle wax. It was attached or melted into a tall, fancy crown, about three feet long. Say your face’s been around fire for a long time, and a metal tall crown was on your head. Metal will melt. It fuses with your face. I can’t explain it. Until that moment, I didn’t even think something like that could happen. Can’t imagine the pain.

Everywhere else on his body works exactly the same. Flesh molded with steel. Steel breastplate meeting skin. Long-sleeved, with fur on the shoulders. Colors were black, grey…faded stuff. He’d still stick out like a sore thumb no matter how little color he wears. Down below was a long dark robe with chains. The chains add a certain flair. Don’t know why he wore a skirt, though. Guy don’t look the templar type.

All I could think of was the pain he went through to get his skin melt into his armor like that. Can’t imagine what it’d feel like being attached to raw cotton or leather. That’d make me part animal. What in the Stone was he thinking anyway, getting into that sort of trouble? WHAT DID HE DO to live through that kinda pain???

Before I could think too much though, a hurlock jumped me and I almost lost balance. I managed to block the attack with my mace. A hurlock sneaking up on me wasn’t the biggest part. It was how it STOPPED FIGHTING all of a sudden and just stood still. Like it wasn’t just trying to cook me alive before all this.

His head was all blue and glowing. Now I don’t see that often, and I been around casters a bit when I did work. He put his sword away, and turned around like he wasn’t just about to cook me alive.

I looked back at the flesh-metal guy and he stood there looking at me. Not moving. Really tall, twice taller than humans. I jumped when his voice echoed throughout the cave.

“APPROACH ME, CHILD OF THE STONE.”

THEN I REALIZED IT’S A LASS!!! They looked like they ain’t got no lady bits, or maybe the robes were too thick. Really hope you ain’t read this, Lenka, SHOO OFF MY DAMN JOURNAL!! No deep sea could compare to her voice. At least half the cave must've heard her. I got no clue in me what was fueling my legs to walk that day. Or what pumped my heart. Lass was more terrifying up close. I got no sleep for three nights.

Skin around her eyes was all melted. One eye was smaller than the other. She got pretty golden eyes. I won’t forget something like her, or it, I don't got no clue. I remember thinking she was unreal.

“My appearance bothers you.” Her voice got soft, but still strong. She'd make a good ship captain. Probably better than my good sister.

I just gawked like a dead cod, no reply. Ain't nothing to reply to that unless I wanna hurt her feelings.

She stood up. I stepped back. If she tried anything, I got my hand on my mace. She noticed my movement but didn’t raise her hand like she did them darkspawn.

She spread out her arms and blue wisps glowed all around her teen feet figure. It covered her like some glowy blanket. I couldn't see her for a bit. AND THEN SHE CHANGED. FLESH-METAL TO HUMAN. Casting could do all sorts, but ain't no bedtime monster could change to a human lass that look like she been groomed as a queen her whole sodding life. No casters done this, none of them books say it. Lassie ain't no caster, she's a DARKSPAWN.

She wore one of them huge robes them casters wear all the time and when she pushed back the cowl, she had the face of some seasoned noble lass from up north. Not Highever. I’m talking NORTH North. A Vint. Yeah, she’s one of them pissy casters all right. Skin’s just like them magisters, sun-touched and all. Black hair tied into one thick braid, thicker than Lenka's ones. Low eyebrows, they look mad all the time. Broad shoulders. Sodding tall for a human lass. Sharp chin. Straight nose. Full mouth look like it forgot how to smile.

“Sit.” She sat down first so I followed suit. “I have many questions for you.”

An impaled deepstalker was spitting and roasting in front of me. Meat looked good. Made my mouth water.

“You're starved.” Lass pointed at the food. “That meat is yours.”

Even when she looked human, I ain't got it in me to ask any sodding question what she just did. WHAT SHE IS. Her metal-flesh look still screamed in my head. I couldn’t shake the sodding fact that a living, talking DARKSPAWN was dust to dunkels offering me meat.

“I must know your name." Said it when man was eating. Lassie got no manners interrupting a man's meal like that. The deepstalker was crunchy. It cooked well. First meal I had that day.

I told her my name, no need to lie. Brodel would’ve gone nutty saying I trust people too much. Truth is, I just wanted to get away as quick as possible.

“What Age have we entered?” she asked again.

Told her it was the Dragon Age, cause what else a man supposed to say? Lass looked like she lost more than half her memories. Not a good life to live in. Wonder where her parents at, or if she got someone she cared back home. Does she got a home?

She threw me another sodding question, “How many Ages have there been?”

“Nine Ages.”

Now that got her mumbling something I don’t know, was damn glad it wasn’t a death spell, cause otherwise I ain't got nothing to write this entry with. She buried her face in her hands. They were gloved. She's dressed like one of them topside bluebloods all right. Her sigh sounded like she got the world on her head.

“Does the title ‘High Priest of Razikale’ mean anything to you, Stone-child?” Lass spoke slowly. No spit came out of her mouth when she talked. “What of the Augur of Mystery? Or Razikale?”

They sound like them topside fables, and I don’t get involved with that. Got the Stone to be worried about already.

“You haven’t even told me your name.” It was past time I asked her that. This lass… I ain’t sure her kind was mentioned in libraries. Flesh-metal magic folk and all that.

Her face hardened a bit. Made her look meaner with all them lines on her face. She ain't a young lass, was a lot more mature than that. “I am the Augur of Mystery. The first High Priest of Razikale.”

Ain't know no topside fable, but it sound important. She a darkspawn though, so maybe she a commander or some sorts. She asked me if I know a thing, and I tell her I ain't do. She just frowned, looking at the cave.

“I don't recognize this place,” she said.

“Cave’s called Valammar. We in Ferelden.”

“Ferelden...?”

Her surprise made me feel all sorts, pity mostly. Lassie don't got no idea how she got here.

“Take me to the Imperium, Amuk Merrin.” Her golden eyes look like they glowed.

Her request took me like a cold. I almost declined it, but she saved my life so I don't wanna say no. “My sister owns a ship in Highever. We came here with one of em. Brodel won’t like extra passengers, so he’ll ask you to pay up.”

Her eyes narrowed. She stood up and put a hand out, then her hands glowed. Then heaps on heaps of gold coins came out of her palms like a fountain, all jingling and clanging to the floor. GOLD CAME OUT OF HER HANDS. I scrambled to gather them all before they rolled away. Oh Lenka you missed out good. Lassie cough out at least 300 sovereigns. Stone, I could put on a rune with all that gold! Lassie was smirking like she knew when the world would end. She probably did.

If all casters could do that, they’d be rich snots in palaces just like them Vints instead of rotting in towers. This was a whole new type of magic.

I was carrying hundreds of gold in my bag. Every move made a noise, jingling like them bells. Weigh like a mountain too, but I gotta keep up with the lass cause she got long legs, and she walk faster than most humans cause she's so tall. Got stupid and hoped no darkspawn saw us, then I remember she was a darkspawn.

“You a darkspawn?” I asked her.

She frowned. “What did you call me?”

Stone, she sounded all prickly when I asked that so maybe I shouldn't have. Don't like hurting feelings.

“How would you describe a darkspawn?” she asked another one.

“These sods you play around with are all darkspawn. Them ugly things.”

We came out of the tunnel to enter another one. This time it was much wider and larger than the first. Then we came across a bunch sitting around a fire, and it was my friends! I whistled at them and their heads whipped back.

Brodel was the first to yelled. “What in the—attack!”

Immediately, Augur lassie’s hands glowed red. She put a hand out in their direction and all their arms also glowed red, then as if controlled by something, their hands stopped going for their weapons and stayed by their sides.

Brodel was hissing underneath his orange beard. “The hell's a caster doing, Amuk?”

“I can be an ally if all of you are clever enough to know the consequences if we were otherwise.” Augur lass sounded as commanding as she was when she told me to take her to the Imperium.

“Are you a Vint?” Gadrin was in awe.

Lassie just looked confused, kinda offended too. “Amuk, talk reason to your friends.”

I stepped forward and told them the Augur lass don’t know where she is, what Age we’re in, or even who she is. All she knows is she wants a ride to Tevinter. I told them she don’t look like she got a family either. No sisters, no brothers, nothing.

“For how much?” Bowan grinned and his brown tooth showed.

Augur lass clicked her fingers twice and freed the spell over my guys. I walked to them and gave them my bag. When they saw how much gold was shining inside, they dropped their swords and tried taking them.

Brodel was grinning. “You’re awful generous for a magister!”

But then his speech cut off cause Brodel and the others EXPLODED. Ain't got no idea but blood and skin started shooting everywhere and landing on me, and I yelled. There was a puddle of them blood coming to my boot, and no matter where I went they was coming my way. My friends EXPLODED IN FRONT OF ME, IT'S WHY I AVOID CASTERS. Ain't no caster I know ever made someone explode like that, unless they a blood mage. But that's what Brodel told me. Brodel's younger than me but he act like he seen more than me. I seen more stuff probably, but don't really realize what they are.

Meanwhile, augur lass ain’t bothered by nothing.

I remember asking her something, but I don’t know what. Just that there were a lot of curses thrown at her. Those guys weren’t the kindest folk. They made me do dirt work all the time, left me to die a few bits, and (((LENKA STOP READING HERE))) I kinda believe my sister when she said these guys think I’ve got rocks for brains. They don’t care about one of their guys when I think of them like they’re family.

“Do you think I will split sovereigns between you and your friends?” Augur lassie said. “I spared them a painful death by showing them what they value most before dying.”

I should've walked. She ain't got no blood pumping in her, no heart. Everything was probably all metal or all ice in there. I got my mace out though I knew it was useless. I told her she was an idiot if she think I’ll let her go with me.

“And you’re a fool, nonetheless.” She made a not-pretty face at where my friends had been standing. My guys’ blood pooled around her boots. “A bigger one if you dare refuse me of my request, and much bigger if you try fighting me.”

I ain't gonna fight her. I just want her to stop killing when it ain't necessary. Brodel and his guys ain't a nice group to hang with, but I still talk to them about family and friends. I'm an old guy, I been married a couple times. My kids all got married or dead. They ain't all I got though. Who did Lassie got? It's why she gotta stop killing when it ain't needed.

“If you introduce me as ‘Augur lass’ another time, you shall meet the same fate as your allies,” she was saying. I turned my back for one second and suddenly she was already behind me. Lassie must’ve flown. “I remember my name. Call me Calphaeya.”

Entry done,  
Amuk Merrin


	2. Entry #2

**CODEX ENTRY: A Different Darkspawn?**

_Seemingly the second entry to Amuk Merrin’s journal, found by luck in the lower bunk of the old Free Marcher ship owned by Lenka Merrin before she published these entries to the Shaperate. Again, the journal entries that can be read appear to be thirty years old. . ._

Calphaeya and I got along pretty well as we headed for Highever. I told her about the four Blights like she asked though I told her it’s probably better if she sought a book. When I asked her if she remembered anything else from her past, she shook her head and went back to sleep.

And let me tell you, lass slept for ages. Thought she slept for a hundred years already, what’d she get tired for? When she slept, she stayed in one position and didn’t move. Dream’s that great, huh. Sometimes I did checks to make sure the lass was still breathing.

With all the sovereign in that cart, we got a carriage from Redcliffe and rode north. Lassie didn’t wanna settle for no drivers, so she decided to buy the whole carriage. We stopped at inns that got libraries in them. Thought it’d be a great addition for the new lady since she liked to read so much.

Lenka ain’t happy when I told her in the letter, cause searching for inns with books meant we gotta dig deep and she said she’s getting impatient waiting at the Highever port. Thought it was worth it to help lassie busy herself with learning, so Lenka could kiss a nug for all I care.

And what’d ya know it? All that gold lassie got us bought me a new silverite mace fresh from a Redcliffe forge and some new inscribed leather armor. Tevinter was a week’s ride and a three-week-sail. Trouble would be easy to find. That, and I liked how they looked.

Crestwood was our stop that time. The inn was occupied didn’t mind us no bit. We weren’t so lucky before. People saw Cal’s blue-blood looks and they all flew to her like flies on crap. She didn’t need help swatting them away, though. Sometimes, her magic powers scared me. Ain’t no business them mages could get this powerful. No wonder they lock them up tight in towers.

“Three separate beds for one night. I pay extra for a bookshelf,” I told the innkeeper.

“Stone-met,” he smiled. A surfacer like me. He pointed at Cal who was looking around at the surroundings behind me. All sorts flocked here and had their drinks on the tables. Mercenaries, grunts, hunters. Hope no templars, though. “That your friend?”

Cal heard cause she gave the innkeeper her whole attention. Sod was shocked. Lassie’s cat-golden eyes had that effect on guys everywhere. Then she smiled. No smile made her less scary.

“Atrast vala,” she said to him.

“That’ll be twenty silvers,” the keeper said to me, smiling all nervous.

He showed us the room at the back of the inn. It was a fair size, not too large and not too cramped. It was worth it seeing lassie all wide-eyed at a bookshelf, though. The first thing she did was read, while I took off my boots and armor. In my mind, I needed to write a letter to Lenka.

“What you learned so far?” I asked Cal.

“To simplify, me and my brethren were responsible for the Blights in Thedas.”

Now that ain’t a pretty fact to be aware of. I didn’t know what made me continue helping this gal get to the nug-end of the world.

“The books said the Deity have tricked us to invade a Golden City,” she said. “A Maker punished us to the realm of the living since we tainted his world black.”

I frowned. Like I said, nothing that came out of this lass’ mouth sounded pretty. “So I’m helping out a villain. You got any idea how much trouble your guys caused the world?”

Her face twisted. “You knew from the start I am a leader of the darkspawn. That should have spelled trouble for you. Why have you continued to follow me?”

“I’m following you? You need my help!”

“Yet you chose to give it. If I took away the sovereigns, if I took away my threats, you would still accompany me.”

“You were gonna turn me to meat pulp!”

“You will be another victim who fell to a darkspawn. The public opinion towards darkspawn conveyed that most would prefer that fate rather than to help one.”

“Ah, sod it!” I got my paper out and a pen, and wrote Lenka’s name at the top. Augur lass went to sleep not long after.

I know how it felt to be alone. I been alone when I fell down a ditch in some Hunter Fell cave. Brodel said he’d come get me but he ain’t got me for hours, days probably, if I knew where the sun was. No paper and pen in my pocket. No birds I could stick a letter on to send to Lenka. It was cold around them glow-shards. I got so hungry I saw them as bronto meat. I lasted days, but how long would lassie last if I hadn’t been there? Now I ain’t say she can’t take care of herself. She do that better than me. But at least back in Hunter Fell, I knew who I was. I knew what Age it was, I knew my ma, my pa, who I been married to for the last twenty odd years, then the ten before, and a thirty before, and I knew who Lenka was. Lassie don’t know nothing, but I ain’t calling her stupid. She’s learning more than me. I just gotta be there and stay out of her way. If she lost herself, I’d help her find a way out. Ain’t nobody done that to me when I was in Hunter Fell.

After I sent my letter, I got nothing to do so I slept. I woke up to yelling and crying. Outside it was dark. Calphaeya was out like a baby, lying down in the same position as last night. The shouting got crazy. I was about to tap the partner awake, but her eyes flew open and shifted to me.

“Bandits?”

“We gotta help them.”

“I thought there was a mayor.”

“Well, there ain’t one now.” I told her she could redeem her past helping these poor sods.

Outside on the main hall was indeed a scene. Five armored humans held patrons hostage and threatened the innkeeper at arrowpoint. Babies cried, women screamed, men couldn’t do anything, oh, and the mayor was there too, actually.

Calphaeya stepped in front of me and used that booming voice she got. “What’s the meaning of this?” All eyes turned to us. I remembered putting my hand on the hilt of my mace.

“My lord, if I may have your name?” the mayor asked.

“That’s the mayor,” I mumbled to Cal.

“Farrington.” She lied like an expert.

“Lady Farrington?” the mayor looked confused, but he shook his head. “My lady, you must be off now. I—”

“Bollocks to that!” What looked like the leader of the bandits pointed a sword at us. He had crooked teeth and the face of an alive hurlock. “Milady here looks like she got the whole coin to feed this blasted village. So what do you—”

The dumb human screamed. The bones in his arm moved under his skin, I could hear the loud cracks, then one popped out, and two, shiny as a bald head when it caught light, sending buckets of blood thrashing everywhere.

His men drew arms and I wanted to put mine to use, but Calphaeya shook her head.

“What’ve you done to me!” said the human leader.

Cal talked to his guys instead. “Suffer the same fate as your leader if you step closer to me or to the mayor. Run away from here and you shall be spared.”

The mayor stared at her, fear and confusion mixing into one. I realised how bad it looked. Word would spread like a parade that there was a crazy ‘Lady Farrington’ who didn’t live in the Circle like all the other casters do and who appeared out of nowhere. We needed to be out of Ferelden quick.

It was too late. The mayor said what everyone in the room were thinking as soon as Calphaeya put her hands out.

“MALEFICAR!!!!”

Speedier than lightning, Calphaeya TURNED INTO SMOKE or a black cloud and that black cloud she turned into flew towards me and somehow, she dragged me to fly with her. FLYING. (LENKA IF YOU READ THIS IT WAS WILD!! YOU EVER FLOWN BEFORE?? I HAVE!!!!)

I felt like a Grey Warden riding one of them griffins. The world spun like the mill and the air attacked my face. I was yelling cause I couldn’t control where I went and I didn’t wanna fall. Everything passed like a blur. I had no idea where lassie was taking me. My heart was gripped in fear. We could crash a tree at any moment and no one would know we died. But I gotta trust lassie. She always know what she did. She ain’t gonna crash us to a tree, or a house.

No idea how many hours lassie cut down by flying, but I thought it was over when she decided to PULL US UP. TO THE SKY. I was yelling by then. Lassie really wanted to kill us. Up there, the air was cold and the clouds felt like nothing. Lassie slowed down for a bit and we were flying by birds. BIRDS. I WAS FLYING BY BIRDS. Black birds, grey birds, white birds, I tried touching them all but they got scared. Then their eyes glowed and they got closer to us, but they were screaming, and I yelled at Cal, “Stop torturing them! Why you gotta force everything to your damn will if they don’t do as you want?”

Lassie didn’t reply, but she let the birds go. I couldn’t stand watching them get hurt. No innocent soul needed to be possessed like that, or whatever lassie did to them. Maleficar, huh? She could control blood and all. Maybe people too. She ain’t controlled me once though. I don’t know what happen when I sleep though.

The wind got crazy up there, I wished I wore more layers. I remember everything below me. Towns, folk, horses. They all looked like ants from up here. Is this how Qunari folk saw us? I still wished the wind wasn’t so strong though.

Well, I had no idea a man was about to fly that day. No clue how lassie was holding up, then I remembered she turned into smoke. Must be another one of her tricks. Turning to smoke then flying. Wondered if she could fly if she was in human form.

Entry done,  
Amuk Merrin


	3. Entry #3

**CODEX ENTRY: A Different Darkspawn?**

_The third entry to Merrin’s journal, again, this was borrowed from the Shaperate after a ship merchant handed it to the Orzammar Shaper. Like all others, the letter appeared to be about twenty years old._

When we arrived at the Highever port, ain’t nothing made me smile more than to see my sister’s ship on the port.

Calphaeya had her hood up at all time. The port was jam-packed with nobles and princes and kings and all the blue bloods there were in Ferelden since the young girl of Teyrn Cousland was celebrating her twelfth birthday today. We had to squeeze through a hundred good-smelling folk before we reached Lenka and the summer ain’t made the situation better. By the time I got to her, I told her to sail right away.

“Could’ve got here quicker, you fat nug-humper,” she said as she looked down the hull, to the sight of cramped nobles. “If I wasn’t moving you, I could’ve moved one of these silver lords and maybe have a little jig with one of the sons.”

I sneaked glances at the crew and knew it wasn’t a good idea discussing everything that’d happened with them tuning in. Two people could talk, but a hundred ears could be listening. So I called ancient-head down to the lower deck and made him have a chat with Lenka. It went well.

“Are you able to take me to the Imperium?” she asked her.

“Yeah, yeah, Amuk told me all about you. I still got his letters in my drawer. Your hand could really vomit gold like he said?”

Calph gave a small smile. “Step back.”

“What you say?”

I stepped back first and pulled Lenka to me. Ancient stuff’s hand glowed golden and out poured sovereign bars just like water would. Several turned to dozens, then I couldn’t count no more when it formed a pile on the floor. Lenka looked like she’d seen a ghost, and we seen plenty. I was looking at it the second time, and even I still found it unbelievable. Was every Vint capable of this? Is that why they’re all sitting in thrones and living in palaces? Wish I was born a Vint.

With all the gold on the ground, it made Calph’s eyes shine more. “Will that suffice for the journey? And for your silence?”

She must think Lenka the snitch type, but she ain’t. I raised my baby sister. “I don’t talk and I won’t. We’ll start the sail on sundown. Amuk, we need to talk.”

She brought me to another room and closed the door behind her. Now, I ain’t told her anything about Calph yet. I just told her I found a friend, and she needed help getting to the Imps. She like to read and sleep a lot. Oh, and she’s a mad strong caster. That’s all I told Lenka. I ain’t told her nothing about no darkspawn stuff.

“Who the sodding living humper is she.” Lenka ain’t pleased one bit that I hid lassie’s powers from her in the letters.

I sighed. She ain’t know about the High Priest of Razikale more than I do, so I told her that.

Her face neutraled. Lenka blinked. Once, and twice. She didn’t know nothing. “Say it again.”

“The Augur of Mystery. Calphaeya. Big gal, big deal. Well, around three thousand years ago.”

She stared blankly at me for a long moment. Then spoke slowly. “Do you have any sodding idea who she is, Amuk?”

“The High—”

She seized me by the arms. “YOU DON’T KNOW WHO SHE IS!!”

“I do!” I freed myself off my sister. She could get touchy-feely sometimes. “She woke up but she remembered nothing about herself. She ain’t hurt me once. She ain’t gonna hurt us.”

“Her people started the Blights, Amuk. The gods they served? Yeah, they’re the Archdemons that led the four Blights we had. Do you want a FIFTH one? She’s a DARKSPAWN, Amuk. You brought a sodding darkspawn queen into my ship and I had no idea…” she rubbed her forehead.

Now how in a bronto’s nest did she know all that? I didn’t know about all of that until lassie told me herself.

“Look, she’s harmless. I’m still alive. She was controlling them hurlocks at the cave but she ain’t controlled me once.”

“You saw her controlling hurlocks and still brought her in? You didn’t think it had anything to do with the fact she was some darkspawn queen?”

“She vomited gold from her hands! Just like I told you in the letters! Tell me you ain’t gonna say no to that when you saw it for the first time.”

Lenka sighed then she was thinking for a long time. I was in Lenka’s captain-quarters. I got off my armor and boots and hung my mace on the wall stand. It was crazy hot and I wanted to shower. Lenka could eat the view for all I care. Then she left the room to tell her crew to start rowing.

That noon, we argued about how to contain a darkspawn. I told her there ain’t no way for that. She said she wanted to put her in a room by herself, far away from everyone. I told her she ain’t gonna be let alone on my watch. She don’t got nobody in the boat, or anywhere. She don’t gotta feel that way anymore on my watch. Lenka said I care too much about a darkspawn. If Cal was full darkspawn, she would’ve killed me. She wouldn’t take me flying weeks ago.

Lenka said she would keep me and Cal in the same room, but she didn’t like it. If I turn up dead, she’d never forgive herself. I told her I ain’t gonna die soon. I got some years ahead of me. Baby girl sisters worry so much.

She placed us in some crooked, ragged, storeroom-looking room. At least it smelled of rum. Lassie didn’t look so pleased though. She picked the corner bed and sat, and lay the pillow up so she could lean on it. While I tidied everything up, Calph was finding herself drowned in another book.

“What’re you reading?” I asked her. I was done tidying up.

“The Chantry. This religion was unheard of during the time of our ascent. Andraste is born a century after my people’s barrage at the Golden City. Before her, the Imperium worshipped what you call the Old Gods. We called them Deity. I was a High Priest of Razikale, and I was named the Augur of Mystery.”

Okay… ain’t one of them names ringing anything in me, except Andraste. Lenka would try to slash lassie’s throat or something though. She ain’t seen darkspawn as much as I did, but she see them as harm as anyone else.

“You remember anything?”

She closed her book and tipped her head back. “So far, nothing. However, last night, I dreamed of the Chantry and their prophetess. Then, I dreamed about the tribe of Ciriane who formed Orlais, and the establishment of the Circle of Magi.”

Outside the curtains, the Fereldan plains stretched as far as I could see. “One hell of a dream. Little wonder why you always sleep in one position.”

She laughed. I was sodding shocked she could do that. “Sleeping? Is that how you perceive it, Stone-child?”

“What else you gotta do?”

“Dreaming.”

“Yeah, in order to dream, you need to sleep first.” Lass ain’t making no sense.

“I suppose that’s a step,” she said with a smile. Her smile ain’t the mean one she showed in the cave. This one was genuine. “Dreaming is the ability to enter the Fade at will during a slumber, but with no true aid of lyrium. By dreaming, you may witness spirits re-enact the history of a location, and in turn, learn what happened.”

Wow. Imagine the sort of wickedry you’d be able to learn from it. I still had my doubts, though. “You sure they all that and ain’t some demons ready to get fancy?”

“They’re demons only if your mind sees them as such,” she said, “I come there with no intention for a confrontation, and thereby, the spirits come to me as wisdom and knowledge and not pride and fear.”

“But the Chantry ain’t believe that, that’s why the mayor called you maleficar that day. They think all the sodding nug-hum that come out of the Fade are all demons and blood casting stuff.”

“I read the Chantry’s views on the Fade. Their understandings are limited only to the raw and twisted side of it that they make no room for the valuable insights it gives. Imagine being capable of looking at the entirety of the world’s thoughts and feelings during certain events. You will learn plenty.”

I yawned hearing all that. “I know enough.”

She smiled again. “The Fade is a tool as much as fire or most anything else is. Use them correctly and they will not burn you. Perhaps others such as yourself may see differently, as you are incapable of experiencing them.”

“Are they real things? Them things you see up there?”

“The Fade exists from one’s perceptions of the world, dreams and nightmares combined, love and hate mingling. It is all real.”

They don’t say these things in the books, but I wondered if I was really ready for a mind explosion. “So you wanna sum up what you learned so far? From both the dreams and the books.”

“I dreamed of the foundation of Arlathan and the emergence of dwarves; the arrival of the Neromenian tribes and eventually the rise and fall of Tevinter Imperium. Then I dreamed of Dumat, Zazikel, Toth, Andoral, and the Grey Wardens that put an end to what you call the Blights. I met a spirit who knew the prophetess Andraste personally and another who were the handmaiden of Divine Justinia I.

“From there, I witnessed spirits re-enacting the creation of the Orlesian empire, the Fereldan kingdom, the formation of the Nevarran Accord, and the establishment of the Circle of Magi,” she said. “When I wake up, I read into detail concerning what I dreamed of.” 

Ain’t no surprise she learned this much when all she did was dream in her sleep and read when she woke up. By the time we reach the Vints, she would’ve had the whole wide Thedas in her hands.

“Where were you born, master Merrin?” she asked me.

Question came as a surprise but I answered her. It was a nice change. “Wycome. Never really lived there, though. Well, I’ve lived all over, but mostly in caves and Lenka’s ship.”

“Has it always been you and your sister?”

“No, no. Ma and pa worked their asses off to make sure we survive the day, but the work isn’t always nice and clean. This ship is Ma and Pa’s. They died old, and peaceful. It’s rare for that to happen to folks like us.”

She nodded and lowered her head, looking like she got a head full of thoughts.

“You don’t remember a thing from your life?” I asked her

Cal shook her head. Sad, cause I was actually curious. I wanted to know more about the Dreamers so I asked her that.

“If a dreamer is too frail of mind, they can be careless enough to attract demons and risk a possession,” she said.

“You ever been possessed by a demon?”

Calphaeya laughed. “With a form as twisted as mine, you may perceive me as a demon myself. Perhaps the correct question should have been: have I possessed anyone?”

Wish I never asked her.

Entry done,  
Amuk Merrin

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please don't hesitate to comment or drop a kudos while you're at it. :)


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